Saturday, September 10, 2005

A week long visit from my friend Jim Affinito has just drawn to a close. We did a two day canoe trip up into Hotham Sound, camped on the Harmony Islands, and searched in vain for the trail to Freil Lake (we found something that looked like it might have been a trailhead, but hit a solid wall of forest about 5 minutes in. If anyone knows the current status of that trail, please let me know.)Fishing was almost a complete washout. Almost, but not quite. Seven days of fishing yielded one medium sized coho, caught by Jim as the sun was going down on the last day of the visit. Filleted, with a side of potatoes and ciders, it was damn tasty. Thanks Jim.Over the course of the visit Jim dropped massive amounts of knowledge, on everything from gardening to biology. The best time to plant this, why that won't survive, what this food will do to that organ, why that organ affects this organ.In a desperate attempt to find something that Jim did not know everything about, I frantically ran through conversational subjects with him, probing for a weakness.Finally, on the subject of art criticism, I scored a direct hit. Jim had never heard of Robert Hughes.